Passenger traffic at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport remained nearly steady in 2024 compared to 2023, slowing the last two years' record-breaking totals, according to data released by airport officials Feb. 4.

With a total of over 21 million departing and arriving passengers passing through ABIA, 2024 marks the airport's second busiest year. Both 2022 and 2023 broke records for busiest year at the airport, and the growth since 2018 only slowed due to the pandemic in 2020… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ United Way for Greater Austin taps new leader (Austin Business Journal)

One of Austin’s oldest nonprofits has picked a new leader. United Way for Greater Austin, which began just over a century ago and has a roughly $19 million annual budget and a staff of 109, appointed Ingrid Taylor to be its new CEO after a national search.

Taylor, most recently chief impact officer of United Way for Greater Austin, has over 20 years of experience at nonprofits and also has worked at Ascension Texas and the University of Texas Taylor will take the helm March 1 from David Smith, who served nine years as CEO.

She said her goals for the organization are clear. “It kind of comes back to: Is our community better off today than it was yesterday?” Taylor said.

“Are more children in high-quality, affordable child care? I think the answer is going to be yes. Are more people getting the referrals when they need them to basic services that keep them healthy, their families healthy and keeps them in the workforce and in the schools? If the answer is yes, then we have done a really good job.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Uber opens ‘interest list’ for Waymo robotaxi rides in Austin (CNBC)

Ride-hailing and food delivery app Uber is opening its “interest list” to users in Austin, Texas, who want to be first in line for Waymo robotaxis there.

The company said in a statement that users will “be able to travel across 37 square miles of Austin — from Hyde Park, to Downtown, to Montopolis” — when the Uber-Waymo service launches soon. The so-called “interest list” allows users to receive Uber updates and bolsters their odds of being matched with a Waymo autonomous vehicle upon launch.

The vehicles that will be part of the Austin service are Jaguar iPace electric models equipped with Waymo’s driverless systems and labeled with both Waymo and Uber branding. The Waymo rides in Austin will only be available through the Uber app, unlike in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where riders hail them through the Waymo One app… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas must invest in water to meet population growth, state demographer says (Community Impact)

Texas’ population surpassed 31 million in 2024, state demographer Lloyd Potter told attendees at the two-day Water for Texas conference Jan. 28 in Austin. He stressed the importance of investing in infrastructure as people and businesses move to the state.

“Water is one of the most urgent and important things for Texas right now. ... If you have people, you need water,” Potter said.

“The people individually need water, and then all the infrastructure that comes with them needs water.” The details Texas gained about 1,500 people per day in 2023-24, Potter said. Most of that growth occurs when people move to Texas from other states or countries, he explained, and birth rates also contribute.

“When we grow from migration, that's what puts stress on our infrastructure,” Potter said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Study finds San Antonio child care deserts are worse than previously known (Texas Public Radio)

San Antonio has even fewer child care seats available than previously known. A study commissioned by the City of San Antonio has found that child care providers are operating at about 70% of the capacity they’re licensed to provide.

Texas A&M University-San Antonio researchers found that, on paper, San Antonio child care providers have the capacity to enroll about two out of three children under the age of five in Bexar County.

But, in reality, they only have enough seats to enroll about half.

“That likely means that there are about 71,000 families in Bexar County who don't have the option of putting their child in child care simply because there aren't enough seats available for them,” said A&M-San Antonio early childhood professor Melissa Jozwiak, who led the study.

The advocacy group Children at Risk publishes a map of Texas child care deserts every year. It shows that South Bexar County especially needs more seats, and that access to high quality, affordable child care is a challenge across the region… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Texas A&M picks 4 companies to deploy cutting-edge nuclear reactors at Rellis Campus (Houston Chronicle)

The Texas A&M University System has selected four companies to explore developing advanced nuclear reactors on its Rellis research campus in Bryan, university officials announced Tuesday morning.

Each of the four companies — Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Aalo Atomics and Terrestrial Energy — could potentially build at least one commercial reactor on the Rellis Campus, company executives said. The announcement comes after Texas A&M sought an early site permit from federal regulators in November to offer land to nuclear companies.

If approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Texas A&M would be the only higher education institution in the country with a commercial nuclear reactor site license. Ultimately, the goal is to create an “energy proving ground” at the Rellis Campus that can serve as a test bed for cutting-edge energy technologies, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said in an interview. A&M would offer companies its nuclear engineering expertise, as well as a site to demonstrate commercial viability of their technology to kickstart further development, he said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Trump proposes U.S. takeover of Gaza and says all Palestinians should leave (New York Times)

President Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years.

Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening.

“We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

While the president framed the matter as a humanitarian imperative and an economic development opportunity, he effectively reopened a geopolitical Pandora’s box with far-reaching implications for the Middle East. Control over Gaza has been one of the major flash points of the Arab-Israeli conflict for decades, and the idea of relocating its Palestinian residents recalls an era when great Western powers redrew the maps of the region and moved around populations without regard to local autonomy.

The notion of the United States taking over territory in the Middle East would be a dramatic reversal for Mr. Trump, who first ran for office in 2016 vowing to extract America from the region after the Iraq war and decried the nation-building of his predecessors.

In unveiling the plan, Mr. Trump did not cite any legal authority giving him the right to take over the territory, nor did he address the fact that forcible removal of a population violates international law and decades of American foreign policy consensus in both parties. He made the proposal even as the United States was seeking to secure the Israel-Hamas cease-fire’s second phase, which is designed to free the remaining hostages in Gaza and bring a permanent end to the fighting.

Negotiators had described their task as exceptionally difficult even before Mr. Trump announced his idea of ousting Palestinians from their homes... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ CIA offers buyouts to entire workforce to align with Trump priorities, sources say (Reuters)

The Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts to its entire workforce Tuesday, citing an aim to bring the agency in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's priorities, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

A CIA spokesperson said in a statement the moves were meant to align the agency with the goals of new CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

"Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration's national security priorities. These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy," a CIA spokesperson said in a statement… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Republican-led states rush to align with Trump's MAGA agenda (NBC News)

Republican governors and state lawmakers are rushing to explicitly align themselves with or mimic some of the most prominent actions President Donald Trump has taken since he was sworn in.

As state legislatures have convened across the country in recent weeks, elected GOP officials have sought to advance bills designed to help facilitate Trump’s mass deportation plans — some of which are named after or specifically reference the president.

And governors and lawmakers in at least 11 states have attempted to create their own version of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission that Trump put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of to find ways to cut federal spending.

The moves, largely centered in solidly red states, at the outset of Trump’s second term underscore the political grip he has on the GOP base and the desire of elected officials in the party to be seen as nothing less than loyal to him… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Musk shocks lawmakers, setting himself on collision course (The Hill)

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk is on a collision course with lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are starting to challenge his authority. Senate Republicans acknowledge they need to cut government spending, but Musk’s bold decision to lock federal workers out of the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID), which Musk called “a ball of worms” and a “criminal organization,” caught them by surprise.

They are now questioning the basis of Musk’s authority to shutter an agency Congress funds annually through the appropriations bills for the State Department and foreign operations. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she has questions about whether President Trump’s authorization is enough to empower Musk to override Congress’s funding directives.

“The president is suggesting that he has authorization. I think there is more than some question,” she said. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Musk or other senior administration officials need to notify Congress in advance before shuttering or reorganizing federal agencies. Collins said whether Musk had the authority to shut down USAID “is a very legitimate question.”

“There is a requirement in the law for 15 days’ notice of any reorganization. We clearly did not get that. We got the letter yesterday,” she said. Collins said the law “also calls for a detailed explanation of any reorganizations, renaming of bureaus, shifting of centers, and again we have not received that.” She said she would talk to fellow Appropriations Committee members “about our next steps.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned that simply shutting down a federal agency such as USAID would violate the Constitution in a strict sense, but he argued former President Biden also pushed boundaries with aggressive uses of executive power… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

www.binghamgp.com

Was this email forwarded to you? Click Here to Sign Up!